The dorms are a lot like your parents. They provide food and shelter, wash your clothes and monitor your guests. They are safe, comfortable and a 20-minute walk from class.
And after living in my first apartment this year, I'm homesick for my figurative Mom and Dad.
Where you live can have a significant impact on your happiness, health and productivity. As soon as I signed my soul over to The Landings at Chandler Crossings, I became proof of that.
One of the biggest mistakes one can make entering a binding living agreement is believing everything the leasing management tells you. Chandler Crossings' three 24-hour gyms sound great, right? Only one is available to you all day — depending on your location — and the other two require a temporary pass provided by your central leasing office in exchange for your key card.
No big deal, right? It's just a gym.
These embellished pre-signing promises don't end with amenities. Last November, eight police vehicles arrived at our building to break up a fight among residents; an officer was forced to use a weapon on the guest of a resident who had been breaking windows and was armed with a blunt object. Blood covered the walls, ceiling and floor.
I promptly spoke to our leasing manager to confirm our safety would not be jeopardized in the future; tiptoeing through blood and glass is nothing short of unnerving, and wondering if this guy or someone like him might be hanging out in the hallways again was alarming.
Gee golly, I guess I didn't read the lease thoroughly. Evidently, the apartment complex is not responsible for its residents' safety, even if that safety may potentially be threatened by guests of neighboring residents. So that whole "gated, safe community" management touts? Bollocks.
Do all leasing agreements claim this in order to avoid frivolous lawsuits? It's possible. But when another tenant under the apartment's contract may have contributed to a dangerous environment for other residents, the situation stops being frivolous.
My next encounter with lease misinterpretation arose from our unoccupied third bedroom. The Landings sent us four too many mattresses, so we did the logical thing and stored them in the third bedroom with two of our own empty plastic containers until maintenance could remove the beds.
About a month and a half later, we received notice that we were being fined an additional month's rent for "personal effects" in the third bedroom, which violated the leasing agreement.
Silly me. I thought only residents who use extra rooms' bathrooms or beds (i.e. allowing others to live in the rooms) had committed a violation — alas, the lease states that even if an extra room is unlocked, you may not enter for any reason. Even if there are four double-size mattresses in the middle of your common area. Even if it is just an empty container.
Too bad we couldn't fine The Landings for breaking its own lease. My roommate has not had Internet for nearly two months, despite the lease's guarantee that residents will have access to a connection. Talk about great service.
It goes without saying that these items, not to mention the nearly two-hour commute to and from campus each day, paper-thin walls and lectures from The Club leasing officers about destroying their gym equipment, have tremendously affected my happiness. Despite how excruciatingly minor they appear day-to-day, the small things add up.
I realize many students endure the same, if not worse, atrocities every day, and like most of them, I've learned to adjust. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to tackle prospective Landings' residents to the ground as they tour the site to save them from a similar fate.
Take my advice: Read your leasing agreement carefully. It will be difficult to fully absorb it before you even move in, since you have no existing contexts to apply the lease stipulations. Still, make a copy and keep it handy. I guarantee you'll need it.
Next, get to know your landlords. They can make or break your living experience, and it's important to gauge how well they follow up with promises, agreements and explanations. If it's a large complex, it may be a painful process to trust the landlords, if you do at all. Don't believe everything they tell you.
Finally, if all else fails and you're stuck with police showdowns outside your door and nearly $500 fines, don't let the little things win. Fight the effects of smaller details, count down the months until your next home and just be glad you weren't the one getting Tasered.
Catherine Fish is the State News production crew chief. Reach her at fishcath@msu.edu.
